Q.  How does the new scheme work in practice?

A.  The sea-change in approach recommended by the strategy document is based on the single principle that every session of duplicate play from every affiliated club is reported electronically to the EBU at Aylesbury.

This may seem a very dramatic change, but in fact is little more than a straightforward extension to the current electronic reporting of Master Points, although made a requirement on every affiliated club.  However, instead of providing information only on those individuals who have gained Master Points in a particular session, the names and/or EBU numbers of all the participants in that session are reported along with the number of boards played, the movement played, the scores, and club identification data.

From this information, the EBU can calculate the amount to invoice the club for the previous playing period, and to monitor the overall scheme, in general.

Modern technology has the capability and capacity to support these processes, although it will necessitate change to both the transmitting and receiving software systems.  This underlying technology is the reason for recommending the provision of a single licence for one EBU approved scoring system per club free of charge.

Note that the information provided is very much the same (if not identical) as that which would be required to provide the “National Rating Scheme”, in that the result of any individual, taking into account the standard of his/her partner over some number of boards within the standard of the opponents which were encountered in the field can be determined to contribute to a player’s current National Rating.